A struggle to the end

My frail and gravely ill mother finally agreed to come stay with us last week because she's so weak. Waiting for CT scans and biopsy results has made it difficult to focus on design considerations and constraints as Designing Online Courses comes to a close. But really, how is that any different than the rest of the semester?

For some reason design considerations have confounded me since Lesson 3. I have a feeling I'm making them more difficult than they really are. I initially struggled with writing learning objectives as well. But once I started considering each objective an extension of the phrase "By the end of the course I want my students to be able to..." they fell into place. No such catch phrase has risen for design considerations, however, so there seems to be no simplifying the concepts for me. Even the readings and supplemental materials from our consideration did not help.

Fortunately, other lessons and concepts were much easier to digest. Assessments seem to come naturally to me (just ask my students who took a grueling final last night in my face to face class!). And dealing with most learner issues isn't too difficult either. But I have yet to figure how to best teach interviewing skills to journalism students in an online class. Perhaps more importantly, how can I help them develop passion and curiosity for telling interesting stories about the world around them? Some would say those last two traits must be innate, but I believe a teacher can help students find their passion and channel their curiosity and energy. I don't think that being a good mentor has to be the purview of a face to face teacher either. But making those strong connections might be a little more challenging in the online environment.

I have mixed feelings about the peer reviews and groups in this course. I am a big fan of peer critiques and I certainly believe they helped me improve my final paper and, to a lesser extent, my drafts. But having to work the peer review group into a heavy mix of drafts, reading and life proved difficult this semester. I will be using a peer critique group in my online course. They will be run in a similar fashion to the story workshop format used in creative writing classes at Columbia College and the University of Iowa. Hopefully, I can find a way to work the groups into the course in a way that is more fun than work.

For me, the most important takeaway from this class will be the design template. As much as I dislike filling out forms, mapping out a course and making sure the objectives, activities and assessments are all aligned has been invaluable. I think I'm going to start using the design template for all the classes I teach, whether online or face to face.

Now if only there was a design template for handling life's biggest challenges.